A Political Chronology of the Middle East

Europa Publications

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2003
• eBook ISBN:
  9781135356736
• Edition: 1

This new six-volume series from Europa provides an impartial record of the political, social, cultural, geographical, and economic events that have helped to shape world history. Each of the regional titles records the major events that have shaped each country and region, with greater emphasis given to more recent affairs. Each volume charts each country's progress, offers a quick perspective into what was once current news, such as elections, wars, disputes, invasions, deaths and assassinations, coronations, diplomatic activities, economic crises, and more.

Israel

3760 BC: This date, as expressed in the modern Christian calendar, marks the beginning of the Hebrew calendar.

c. 2000 BC: Abraham, the first of the Patriarchs of Judaism, departed from Ur (considered to have been in modern Iraq).

c. 1600 BC: The Hebrews, the tribe formed by Abraham's descendents, migrated to Egypt; there they were subsequently enslaved.

c. 15th century BC: Moses led the ‘Exodus’ (flight) from Egypt into Canaan.

1220 BC–1190 BC: Canaan was conqered by Israelite tribes; the Philistines—sea-faring peoples from the Peloponnese—also attacked Canaan and came into confrontation with the Israelites.

c. 1020 BC–1000 BC: King Saul, the first King of Israel, reigned.

c. 1000 BC–970 BC: During the reign of King David, Jerusalem was established as the Israeli capital.

c. 990 BC: The Philistines were defeated by King David.

965 BC–928 BC: During the reign of King Solomon, the Israelite lands were extended from the upper Euphrates to the Gulf of Aqaba; the territory was eventually divded into two Jewish kingdoms: Israel in the north and Judah in the south.

c. 957 BC: The construction of the First Temple was completed.

722 BC: Israel was conquered by Assyrian forces led by King Shalmaneser and the Israelites were deported. The Assyrians made Judea a tributary kingdom and divided the remainder of the region into provinces for administrative purposes.

612 BC: The Assyrian Empire fell and the region was absorbed into the Chaldean (Neo-Babylonian) Empire. While under Chaldean rule the Jordan valley was the subject of incursions by several neighbouring civilizations.

586 BC: Jerusalem (al-Quds in Arabic) was destroyed by the Babylonian forces of King Nebuchadnezzar; most of the Jewish population were captured and taken to Babylon.

586 BC: Jerusalem and the First Temple were destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar. The Jews’ Babylonian captivity, or exile, began.

539 BC: The Chaldean Empire was seized by Cyrus II (‘the Great’) of Persia who allowed the Jews to return to the Jordan valley.

520 BC–515BC: The Second Temple was constructed in Jerusalem.

333 BC: Alexander III (‘the Great’) of Macedon, the Greek warrior, conquered the region. Following his death in 323 BC, the region came under the rule of one of his generals, Seleucus Nicator.

175 BC: The Seleucid ruler Antiochus IV took control of Palestine and prohibited Judaism.

167 BC: The Second Temple was desecrated by Antiochus IV, giving rise to the Maccabaean revolt.

December 164 BC: The Second Temple was reconsecrated by Judas Maccabaeus.

140 BC: The Hasmonean dynasty commenced, under the leadership of Simon Maccabaeus.

63 BC: The Romans incorporated Judah (Judea) into their empire, beginning the period of Roman domination.

54 BC: The Second Temple was plundered by Crassus.

37 BC: The Romans installed Herod as King of Judea; with their support, he was able to extend his rule over both sides of the Jordan valley.

20 BC: Work to reconstruct the Second Temple was begun under Herod the Great; the work was completed in AD 63.

6BC: Palestine was annexed by Rome as Syria Palestina.

AD 132–135: The Second Jewish Revolt, also known as the Bar-Kochba rebellion, was unsuccessful.

140: A Jewish national movement, the Zealots, revolted against Roman rule, in what became known as the First Jewish Revolt; the revolt was defeated in 70 when the Romans captured Jerusalem and destroyed the Second Temple.

c. 200: Jerusalem was renamed Aelia Capitolina by the Romans; Jews were prohibited from entering the city.

691: The Dome of the Rock was erected in Jerusalem on the site of the Temple of Solomon.

969: The Shi‘a Muslim Fatimids of Egypt, who had seized the Caliphate from the Abbasids, took control of the region.

1071: The Fatimids were supplanted in control of the Caliphate by the Seljuq Turks.

1099: Jerusalem was captured by Western Christian forces during the Crusades, who established the principality of Oultre Jordain, with a capital at Al-Karak.

1174: Salah ad-Din Yusuf ibn Ayyub (Saladin), deposed the Fatimids and established himself as the sultan of Egypt.

1182: The Jews were expelled from France.

1187: The Crusaders were defeated by Salah ad-Din (Saladin) at the Battle of Hattin.

1251: The Crusaders’ expulsion from Acre marked their removal from Palestine.

1260: The Ayyub dynasty was deposed by the Mamelukes—former Christian slaves of Kurdish and Circassian origin who had converted to Islam; the region became a province of Mameluke territory, which extended from the Nile to the Euphrates.

1290: The Jews were expelled from England.

1492: The Spanish Inquisition forced Iberian Jews either to convert to Christianity or be expelled from Spain.

1516: The Mamelukes were defeated by the Ottoman Turks; the Ottoman domination of Palestine began.

1791: The French Jewry was emancipated by Napoleon Bonaparte.

1825: Mordecai Manuel Noah invited world Jewry to create a Jewish state on Grand Island in the river Niagara, USA.

1840: The European powers forced Muhammad Ali to return Palestine to direct Ottoman rule.

1881: Following the death of Tsar Alexander II of Russia a series of pogroms (purges) were undertaken against Jewish communities in that country, provoking large-scale Jewish emigration to Western Europe and to the USA and emigration on a smaller scale to Palestine.

1882: The Hovevei Ziyyon (‘Lovers of Zion’) group was formed in Russia; the group promoted the settlement of Jews in Palestine.

1887–88: Palestine was organized into administrative divisions of Acre and Nablus.

1896: An Austrian journalist, Theodor Herzl, published a pamphlet, Der Judenstaat (The Jewish State), which proposed the creation of a state for the world's Jews.

August 1897: The first Zionist Congress was held at Basel (Switzerland), where Herzl defined the aims of Zionism.

1905: The failure of the Russian Revolution resulted in renewed series of pogroms against Jews in Russia; further such purges occurred after the successful Revolution in 1917.

1905: The Jewish Territorial Organization was founded, with the aim of finding autonomous territory for the Jewish people.

1905: The seventh Zionist Congress rejected colonization of any territory other than Palestine.

24 October 1915: Sir Henry McMahon, on behalf of the British Government, declared support for Arab independence in an area possibly including Palestine at the end of the First World War.

February 1916: France, Russia and the United Kingdom signed the Asia Minor Agreement (also known as the ‘Sykes-Picot Treaty’), under which Palestine was to be administered as a British, French and Russian condominium.

November 1917: The ‘Balfour Declaration’, a statement made by the British Foreign Secretary, Arthur Balfour, to Baron Rothschild, leader of the British Jewry, proclaimed the Jordanian Mandate to be within the area to be allocated as a Jewish ‘national home’ in Palestine.

9 December 1917: Jerusalem was captured from Ottoman forces by the British.

31 October 1918: The entirety of Palestine was taken under British military rule.

1919: David Ben-Gurion founded the United Labour Zionist Party.

3 January 1919: The Faisal-Weizmann Agreement pledged Arab and Zionist communities in Palestine to cordial relations.

June 1919: The World Zionist Organization (WZO) presented a memorandum to the Paris Peace Conference (held in the French capital to create stable governance in the territories affected by the First World War) expounding its concept of a Jewish home in Palestine.

1920: A clandestine Jewish army, the Haganah, was formed.

1920: The Asefat Hanivharim (Elected Assembly) and the Vaad Leumi (National Council) were created by Jews in Palestine.

March 1920: The General Syrian Congress elected Amir Faisal, son of the Sharif Hussain of Mecca, King of United Syria, which included Palestine.

July 1920: Palestine became a British Mandated Territory.

30 June 1922: A joint resolution of the US Congress approved the concept of a Jewish national home.

24 July 1922: The Council of the League of Nations approved the terms of the British Mandate for Palestine.

September 1922: The British Government promulgated a Constitution providing for a legislative council and the creation of a joint Arab-Jewish Palestinian State. Arab opposition, however, meant that the Constitution did not supersede British direct rule.

22 September 1922: The British Government announced that the Balfour Declaration would not be applied to the area east of the river Jordan, which would be closed to Jewish immigration.

1929: The Mapai political party was formed.

August 1929: The WZO established the Jewish Agency, a body which strove for the partition of Palestine and the creation of a Jewish state.

August 1929: Disputes over Jewish access to the holy site of the Wailing Wall in the Old City of Jerusalem led to serious disturbances between Muslims and Jews; British military forces intervened.

30 March 1930: The Shaw Commission published its report on the causes of 1929 riots. The offer of a legislative council, to form the basis of constitutional government, was consequently renewed, but Arab leaders declined the opportunity to discuss it with Jewish counterparts.

October 1930: Legislation in the British Parliament, known as the ‘Passfield White Paper’, recommended a halt to Jewish immigration into Palestine and the curtailment of Jewish land purchases.

1936: A general strike was observed by the Arab population of Palestine.

April 1936: The Palestinian revolt commenced. An Arab High Commit...

Table of contents

• Front Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Foreword
• Contents
• Armenia
• Azerbaijan
• Bahrain
• Cyprus
• ‘Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus’
• Georgia
• Iran
• Iraq
• Israel
• Jordan
• Kuwait
• Lebanon
• Oman
• Palestinian Autonomous Areas
• Qatar
• Saudi Arabia
• Syria
• Turkey
• United Arab Emirates
• Yemen